Useful info for SCWCD 5

I am preparing for SCWCD 5 and spent some time yesterday setting up my dev environment. I had to do some search and gather information from various websites before I succeeded. So I thought of compiling everything and there is no other best place than the SCWCD forum. I hope SCWCD 5 aspirants will find this information useful.

You may not want to do that. You realize that SCWCD 5 is actually J2EE 1.4 based right? As such, the exam asks for Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0 knowledge. If you train/test with Servlet 2.5/JSP 2.1 you might memorize things wrongly for the exam.

(personally I think the name SCWCD 5 is one of the most confusing names for an exam ever. SCWCD 1.4-r2 would be a much better name) [ February 09, 2008: Message edited by: Arjan Times ]

The below objectives present in 310-081 have been removed from CX-310-083 under,Section 7: Building JSP Pages Using the Expression Language (EL) # Given a scenario, write EL code that uses the following operators: aritmetic operators, relational operators, and logical operators. # Given a scenario, write EL code that uses a function; write code for an EL function; and configure the EL function in a tag library descriptor.

Just to be clear about this, an IDE -while nice to have- is not necessary to develop with JEE.

Marcus Green
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posted Feb 09, 2008 12:21:00

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And if you want to do these here newfangled Enterprisish Java Beans Netbeans comes with the Glassfish server built in, zero configuration. Not sure it can be as good as WebShpere though cos it doesn't cost any money (tee hee)

My early advice was for the case if you want develop WEB/JEE applications, it helps/increase your productivity - but you must know what you do. My advice is when you study for the exam (or what ever) to use just a normal editor, is really annoying at the begging but you relay on own power not on some fancy ide feature.

Regards M

Prasanna Kate
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posted Feb 12, 2008 04:52:00

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You may not want to do that. You realize that SCWCD 5 is actually J2EE 1.4 based right? As such, the exam asks for Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0 knowledge. If you train/test with Servlet 2.5/JSP 2.1 you might memorize things wrongly for the exam

I think SCWCD 5 covers the latest spec (Servlets 2.5, JSP 2.1, JSTL 1.2) , see here: http://faq.javaranch.com/java/Scwcd5Links Although, there are only minor differences between the older and newer versions of the specs.

The 1.4 specs will be valid for version 5 of SCWCD since no new topics were added. I've removed the content from Scwcd5Links - when I created it a while back I was under the impression that the new spec versions would be helpful. Sorry about any confusion.

A good workman is known by his tools.

Arjan Times
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posted Feb 13, 2008 05:34:00

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Originally posted by Marc Peabody: The 1.4 specs will be valid for version 5 of SCWCD since no new topics were added.

On top of that the 5 specs are invalid for version 5 of the SCWCD exam. So, if you want to take the SCWCD 5 exam, don't even look at Servlet 2.5 etc. You run the risk that you remember something that is in Servlet 2.5, but isn't in Servlet 2.4. For the SCWCD exam, you must mentally assume that there is only Servlet 2.4.

For example, I use something like the following a lot:

When taking the SCWCD 5 exam, I actually have to remember that I must forget that something like this is possible. If the exam makers are really tricky (and as we know, sometimes they are ), they might just ask a question using the above syntax. The answer would be naturally that it works, but specifically for SCWCD 5 you must remember that it doesn't work and that the AS will not start up in this case.

The below objectives present in 310-081 have been removed from CX-310-083 under, Section 7: Building JSP Pages Using the Expression Language (EL) # Given a scenario, write EL code that uses the following operators: aritmetic operators, relational operators, and logical operators. # Given a scenario, write EL code that uses a function; write code for an EL function; and configure the EL function in a tag library descriptor.

These objectives have been removed by accident probably, because I had questions about EL functions and operators on SCWCD 5 exam. Someone did copy-paste on objectives not quite right

Aleksander Switalski
SCJP 5, SCWCD 5, SCBCD 5

Arjan Times
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posted Feb 15, 2008 15:07:00

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Originally posted by Aleksander Switalski:

These objectives have been removed by accident probably, because I had questions about EL functions and operators on SCWCD 5 exam. Someone did copy-paste on objectives not quite right

Wow, if what you say is true than that's quite uhmm.. careless of Sun. I've seen some small typos in objectives before. E.g. SJCP 5 had a class mentioned in its objectives, which they simply forgot to remove. Since published objectives may never be changed, this class was never removed from the list (according to Bert in his book).

But actually copy-pasting something wrongly so that 2 subjects are omitted.

Not good...

I wonder why Sun doesn't update its objectives for such an obvious typo?

Aleksander Switalski
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Posts: 14

posted Feb 16, 2008 03:40:00

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When Sun made SCWCD 5 official, the design patterns objectives had been also missing - it took Sun 4 or 5 days to complete them...

Have you looked at the changes between the J2EE 1.4 and Java EE 5 versions of the specs? There are only a handful of really minor things which may, occasionally, prove useful to you (like trimming extraneous whitespace) but nothing there which will affect your day-to-day development at all.

Both servlet specifications are applicable for the SCWCD, since the exam is only about core objectives and not minor 'tweaks' (and EL 2.1 is not included in the exam either, since you really need JSF to use it at the moment).

Those minor changes and EL 2.1 can be found in the last couple of chapters of my book if you're interested, but it's all non-examinable.

Hi Everyone, I am almost through studyin got SCWCD 1.4 when I got to hear that Sun is continuing the exam. As per your post, it seems that SCWCD 1.4 & SCWCD 5 appear to be similar, with minor "tweaks". Could you please tell me those tweaks?? Will SCWCD 5 be more tougher than SCWCD 1.4

Thanks in Advance.

If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer.<br />--Yogi Berra

Charles Lyons
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posted Feb 18, 2008 05:45:00

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As per your post, it seems that SCWCD 1.4 & SCWCD 5 appear to be similar, with minor "tweaks".

Not what I said! I said J2EE 1.4 and Java EE 5 Web tiers are similar with tweaks - there will be no difference in the exams for each (except for changing some specific questions to make them harder/easier - basically just improving the quality of the questions).

Could you please tell me those tweaks??

I'll be happy to: read chapters 20-21 in my book!

Good luck in the exam too!

Arjan Times
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posted Feb 18, 2008 15:23:00

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Originally posted by Charles Lyons: Have you looked at the changes between the J2EE 1.4 and Java EE 5 versions of the specs? There are only a handful of really minor things which may, occasionally, prove useful to you (like trimming extraneous whitespace) but nothing there which will affect your day-to-day development at all.

What you are basically saying is that there is not really a good reason to include those 'minor' tweaks, right? I would rather pose the question the other way around; was there really a good reason to exclude them?

If they are so minor, why not just include them? Why cause all this confusion? Why call an exam version "5" when it's about "1.4"?

Originally posted by Arjan Times: If they are so minor, why not just include them? Why cause all this confusion? Why call an exam version "5" when it's about "1.4"?

It is for the same reason English professors are not scrambling to change their vocabulary exams to include the word "truthiness" and for the same reason a painter doesn't change her painting of a tree simply because it grew a few more leaves.

The changes are typically so minor that they wouldn't have made the cut even if the exam were completely rewritten. Additionally, there are so many other more useful topics already in place that you'd have to remove something that's useful to add something 1.5 specific that isn't very important.

Originally posted by Marc Peabody: The 1.4 specs will be valid for version 5 of SCWCD since no new topics were added. I've removed the content from Scwcd5Links - when I created it a while back I was under the impression that the new spec versions would be helpful. Sorry about any confusion.

Hello, Is there a clarity on the version information now? Sun's site says: Sun Certified Web Component Developer for the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 (CX-310-083)

Now, JEE 5 means servlet 2.5 and jsp 2.1 specification, doesn't it?

Please, if any one has any information, kind post it here. Should we practice on Tomcat 5.5 (implements servlet 2.4/jsp 2.0) or Tomcat 6 (implements 2.5/2.1)?

The SCWCD 5 exam covers the Java 1.4 EE specs - which are the same as the ones we listed on the ScwcdLinks page.

Arjan Times
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posted Mar 09, 2008 06:41:00

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Originally posted by Marc Peabody:

The changes are typically so minor that they wouldn't have made the cut even if the exam were completely rewritten.

I understand what you are saying, but I'm not sure I made it clear what I meant to say myself . The thing is, I'm ok with the fact that there may not be any questions about the things that have changed. They are indeed minor things and as you said, there are bigger fish to fry.

However, and this is a key thing IMHO, the exam is set up in such a way that a student has to be careful to -avoid- her new knowledge about Java EE 5. The exam has the 5 in it, yet if it so happens that a question on the exam includes something that is legal in Java EE 5, but not in J2EE 1.4, then you *must* answer that it is not legal!

I know this is a subtle thing, but I hope you understand my point.

The thing is, no matter if you think the Servlet 2.5 additions are minor, major or something in between, it's *very* confusing that an exam with the "5" in it, is actually about J2EE 1.4.

The SCWCD 5 exam covers the Java 1.4 EE specs - which are the same as the ones we listed on the ScwcdLinks page.

Thanks, Mark. If you don't mind, can you please share the source of your information? How do you know that it covers 1.4 and not 1.5 when the title of the exam says Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5. Doesn't that mean it is JEE 5 and not J2EE 1.4?

That's the cause of my confusion and I will be obliged if anybody gives an authentic answer.

Marc's answer is authentic, taken from Bert Bates' own comments, which can be read here.

Sorry but I couldn't see Bert's comment anywhere on the url that you've mentioned. Could you please check it?

Arjan Times
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posted Mar 10, 2008 16:20:00

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Originally posted by Seena Conne: How do you know that it covers 1.4 and not 1.5 when the title of the exam says Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5. Doesn't that mean it is JEE 5 and not J2EE 1.4?

That's the cause of my confusion

It's the cause of everybody's confusion I think. I constantly have to direct people to either the FAQ or the official exam directives. At first, most people just don't believe me when I tell them a Java EE 5 exam is actually about J2EE 1.4. No matter how tiny and how small the differences are, it's just plain weird to name the exam 5 when it's about 1.4.

Again, if the exam creators are so against (or just don't see the point in) asking things about Servlet 2.5 etc, then why -did- they choose the name of the exam to be SCWCD 5? Wouldn't SCWCD 1.4 r2 orso be a far better name?

I remember in HFSJ book it is mentioned that if you are really appearing for SCWCD dont practice on IDE rather use simple text editor..but why this post talks about configuring IDE and extra stuff...Till now i did not use any IDE...Should i really use IDE?

The below objectives present in 310-081 have been removed from CX-310-083 under,
Section 7: Building JSP Pages Using the Expression Language (EL)
# Given a scenario, write EL code that uses the following operators: aritmetic operators, relational operators, and logical operators.
# Given a scenario, write EL code that uses a function; write code for an EL function; and configure the EL function in a tag library descriptor.

Section 11: J2EE Patterns has been renamed to Java EE Patterns

This is all the info I found on Sun Certification site.
So the objectives haven't changed but some have been discarded.
The Passing percentile has increased and so has the time limit.

I haven't checked the Sun Certification site, but yesterday (apr 23, 2009) I took the exam series 083, and on the printout I got it section 7 is still present and section 11 still has the old description.